TANGEDCO To Offer Free Electricity To All Farmers

The Tamil Nadu government announced on Saturday that an amount of Rs 5,157.56 crore will be allocated to Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) for the fiscal year 2023 to offer free electricity to all farmers across the state.

Tamil Nadu state agriculture minister MRK Paneerselvam said in a separate agri budget presentation on Saturday that the state government has earmarked Rs 2,399 crore as the state share of premium subsidy for executing crop insurance plan consistently for 2022-23.

Despite severe budgetary constraints, the state government continues to construct crop insurance schemes to safeguard farmers from agricultural losses caused by natural disasters. Due to the state government's ongoing efforts, a sum of Rs 2,055 crore has been distributed to 9.26 lakh farmers as compensation for the fiscal year 2020-2021.

The Tamil Nadu government is paying special emphasis to increasing the area under micro-irrigation on a cluster basis, providing a 100% subsidy for small and marginal farmers and a 75% subsidy for other farmers. The program would be executed on an area of 2,50,000 acres at Rs 960 crore, with funds provided by the Union and state governments, he added.

Tamil Nadu will build village-level value addition and marketing centers to assist small and marginal farmers in earning additional revenue by participating in local value addition. NABARD will be used to support the state government.

With a total investment of Rs 95 crore, such centers would be created in 38 villages where millets, pulses, oilseeds, and vegetables are mostly grown, with a focus on the millet mission regions. In addition to the construction of storage godowns, those centers will have facilities for cleaning, grading, packaging, and value addition.

With the goal of learning, cultivating, and earning, the state government will establish Agricultural Market Intelligence and Farmer Advisory Centres in 15 districts including Kallakurichi, Salem, Tirupattur, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Kancheepuram, Nagapattinam, Perambalur, Vellore, Chengalpattu, Ramanathapuram, Namakkal, Tiruppur, Ranipet, and Ariya.